just as I am: Christmas!

After an early Christmas at the Marstons on the 23rd of December, Tim and I headed toward Yakima to spend Christmas with my family! We arrived on Christmas eve and played music for the Christmas even service at church. Kate, Jane, Annie, Trudy and I sang, Tim played guitar, and Ray played bass. Christiana read the Bible portions for the service very well (her reading aloud skills are quite impressive!). The late service was at 11pm. That's pretty late! But we survived and they were nice services...

Christmas: This year the little kids slept downstairs and they slept in!!! until a little after 8am. We got up and got the stockings, which mom so amazingly filled. I don't know how mom does it, but she manages to put the most amazing and interesting things into them. I got a great pair of socks and a cool, super-duty magnet for the fridge. We also got potato guns and botan rice candy which is possibly my favourite candy. You can eat the rice-paper wrapping...
Anyway, we --the kids-- always head downstairs and open and enjoy our stockings and admire each person's gifts. We converse and have a lot of fun...

This year, on Sarah's cool, lower-rates-for-overseas cell-phone plan, we called up our friends in Germany and Slovakia (mostly former exchange students). It was quite enjoyable.

After playing with potato guns and opening our wonderful stockings and talking to our friends from far away, we headed upstairs. Annie had made some delicious orange rolls (a long-standing tradition...) which we consumed with Tetley Tea in our fancy tea cups. It was a nice, joyful morning.

Gifts:

In our family, we purchase and give gifts mostly in groups. A bigger person is matched with one or two younger people and each group gets a present for every person in the family (there is some sneakiness involved when it comes to getting a present for the other people in your group!)
Dad passes out the gifts one-by-one. Each gift is appreciated and admired by all. This process took a long time, but it was really fun....

Kate with her painting from Jane

Emily and Charity

Mercy with Millard...or maybe Fillmore. The twins got these funny little creature-toys and almost instantaneously named them Millard and Fillmore. It was very cool.

Tim opening a gift

Christiana with her new softy

I got some Sesame Oil...very good for cooking tasty things! Thanks!

Annie, her cheerful self...

Jane and Ray

excited about the gift...and rightly so. It was a very cool maternity (she's expecting) coat that Peter bought her...

I love this picture of Noah that Tim took

Dad, trying on his new hat

She got a bump-it! We all enjoyed that one...

Sarah, opening a present

Kate and Trudy

Peter got me these cool gloves...

Peter got Sarah these cool, memory-foam slippers

Kate opening a beautiful scarf

Dad and Emily, wearing the hat we gave her

Dad with cap, pipe and tea

Peter, donning the new sweater we got him

Sarah wasn't the only one to get a Snuggie this Christmas. Eppie (Aka: The Whep, Eppie-glottis, Webster, or Eppie-nephrine...) also got one! It was just for dogs and quite cute